Yesterday, I watched a really excellent Japanese "found footage," mockumentary-style horror film called "Noroi: The Curse." If you can handle sub-titles, then I strongly recommend that one.

It was so good, I almost immediately sought out & watched the director's other addition to the "found footage" horror sub-genre ie., "Occult." That wasn't quite as good, but man, it still had a really powerful impact. It didn't have its own Wikipedia article, so I wrote one up for it. This movie has never been released with English sub-titles, and I don't even believe that it got a full cinematic release in Japan (I think it only played at film festivals), so you'll probably never see it anyway (although if you really want to, you can find it at YouTube under the phony name "The Unidentified," where its broken up into eleven parts, and if you click on the "CC" at the bottom-right of the screen, the English-language captioning that the uploader meticulously added to the film, will play along with the video).

Anyhoo, here's my plot synopsis that I posted over at Wikipedia. Its, um...a very original film, and if you're into horror (and really, you must be, if you're at this site), its worth reading. Its not even that great of a movie, but with a bigger budget, it really could have been (this is positively SCREAMING to be re-made by an American production company, but alas, there's no chance of that):

After a shockingly brutal and unprovoked, broad daylight mass assault by knife (including the murder of at least two young women), at a a beautiful, idyllic Japanese resort, a film crew sets out to document the events surrounding the case, eventually coming to focus on the weird, seemingly supernatural events in the lives of the victims and assailant, both before and after the incident. As events progress, the documentary comes to revolve around the psychological impact of the attack on a chronically unemployed, and somewhat odd and pathetic man in his early 30s (upon whom the killer carved a series of petroglyph-derived symbols, during the initial attack, telling him it was "your turn next"), and the pattern of paranormal activity with seems to follow him about.

Eventually, the man decides that the initial attack was an act of God, as well as a ceremony intended to both honor God, and open a portal to another dimension. He believes the attacker from the opening scene now resides in this other dimension, as he was seen almost immediately jumping off a nearby cliff, but his body was mysteriously never found. After a series of encounters with huge, flying, apparently telepathic, and quite disturbing-looking, unEarthly entities of a possibly extraterrestrial or other dimensional nature, he comes to the conclusion that he has a God-given "duty" to perform a similarly violent "ceremony," which will enable him to make his journey into this other realm. After an encounter where the film director also witnesses the existence of these same beings, he reluctantly agrees to document the events. The ceremony is to take the form of a suicide bombing of a crowded Tokyo intersection. The bombing takes place, and 108 people are killed. Oddly, no trace of the body of the man wearing the suicide vest is ever located, while the director is convicted as an accomplice, and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Upon his release from prison, now a man in his advanced middle age, he discovers both a video camera, and a 100-yen coin, both of which the man said he would send back to him from the other dimension, in the event he made a successful sojurn to it. The video camera includes a cassette showing the man's final moments on Earth, as well as his apparently successful transition into the other dimension. This dimension appears to be a realm of horrific lunacy and monstrous suffering, and is otherwise of a pseudo-Lovecraftian nature. The man pronounces it "Hell," and in terrified screams, he begs the director to help him, as other persons in obvious torment float in the space around him, and gigantic creatures with an appearance similar to jellyfish, seem to malevolently drift in their midst.

September 23rd, 2011

bryantburnette

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

Moneyball. Great, great movie -- other than Drive, the best I've seen all year. Brad Pitt is as good as he's ever been, and even if you're not interested in baseball -- which I am definitely not -- it's a great story.

September 23rd, 2011

fljoe0

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

Get Low - Robert Duvall and sissy Spacek and Bill Murray

An old hermit wants a funeral while he's still alive. Good flick

September 26th, 2011

jellydonut25

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

Thor.
It was good. I liked it a lot. My main problem was that I felt like they didn't give Natalie Portman enough to really DO, which was unfortunate because her chemistry with Chris Hemsworth was actually pretty good.

Also, Loki's actor just missed the mark for me. I'm not familiar with Thor in comic form, so I don't know how true he was to that, but I got the feeling that as the movie went on, Loki was supposed to become more maniacal and less in control...to basically pull a Jack Nicholson or Christopher Walken, and the actor who played Loki just never quite got into the crazy enough to pull it off that well.

Also, Hopkins mails this in...big time...could he look LESS interested? Seriously, it's like he actively tries to suck the life out of every single scene he's in.

Still, those were my only real complaints (and somehow, the appearance of the Asgardians in the real world just didn't quite work for me...too shiny or something...), and the rest of the movie was very enjoyable and i actually really appreciated the semi-twist that Loki turns out to not be completely EVIL, just really misguided.

September 26th, 2011

J.T. Adams

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

Insidious. I recommend at least one watch of it. Not great maybe, but had some legitimate terror in it.

September 26th, 2011

wick

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

I just recently watched the Burbs with Tom Hanks. Great film, love the Rumsfield character.

September 28th, 2011

sam peebles

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

I've been kinda sick so have been crapping out on the couch watching netflix more than usual...

Troll Hunter - decent, "found footage" style a la Blairwitch. It's got subtitles, but it was fun, and what I expected.

Blade 2 - directed by Gullermo del Torro, but this film sucked. It was too long, and I lost interest.

Pandorum - I like space horror, and this one started off cool, but then turned into a Descent-ripoff, with a silly psychological aspect, and poorly choreographed fights. A shame.

September 29th, 2011

bryantburnette

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

Body Bags -- it was the only John Carpenter movie I'd never seen.

Not particularly good, but it had its moments. Stacy Keach was hilarious, and I thought Mark Hamill was really creepy.

September 29th, 2011

jacobtlong

Re: whats the latest movie you have watched?

I've been digging through my Dragonball Z movie collection. I watched World's Strongest and The Tree of Might today. I haven't seen them in maybe seven years and they sure bring back a lot of memories. I remember drawing all the characters dozens of times. Especially the main character Goku. Then I showed the drawings to my buddies and they said they could draw them better and we had a draw-off. Ah, good times. :geek:

I think I just need two more to make my Dragonball Z movie collection complete. If I can find them then I know what I'm going to spend some of my birthday money on. :y: